I made it!

Well, it's been a hectic few days but the 30 other trainees and I are now in Koudougou, where we'll be for a few days before moving in with our host families. So much to tell and so little time to do it! Here's a recap of the last few days, and I'll try to write more later, when I'm not so busy.

Oct 12: Orientation and meeting people
I arrived in Philly with my overabundance of luggage about an hour before orientation activities began. The hotel Peace Corps put us up in was in the historic district, but unfortunately there was really no time to sightsee. There were 31 trainees all together, and we spent the day getting to know each other and learning names that we definitely wouldn't be able to remember yet. We turned in a pile of paperwork, and then went over tons of PC regulations and expectations we had. After about 5 hours of such activities, we had time to go wander a bit and get dinner. Peace Corps gave us quite a bit of money for our days in the US, so we found a nice restaurant to get a good last meal at. I had pollo limone with mashed potatoes. Very delicious. And dessert was cannoli and flourless chocolate cake. Mmm.

Oct 13: Flying to Ouagadougou

On Thursday, we got up at the early hour of 6:30 to load all our luggage onto the bus. Then we headed over to the clinic to get Yellow Fever shots. Luckily, I had gotten mine last year in Ecuador so I was exempt from that. Then after everyone was done, we got onto the bus for the 3 hour ride to JFK and got there around 1 pm, 5.5 hours before our flight. American Airlines even opened up a new check in lane for us, which wasn't actually as special as it sounds. A couple of us were starving by that time so we went to a restaurant in the terminal for our last meal in the USA. I got a typical American item: burger and fries. Then D, JK and I had to mail some things so we went off in search for a post office. Finally, it was time to load the 7+ hour flight to Brussels. I must not have traveled on American Airlines a lot before, because I generally remember overseas flights being pretty comfortable, but this time there was very little legroom, even for me, and we didn't have little individual movie screens. It didn't really matter though, since I slept for a lot of the flight. We had about a 2 hour layover in Brussels and then continued on to Ouagadougou!

Oct 14: Arrival in Ouaga

After almost 24 hours of traveling, we finally arrived! We unloaded the plane and then boarded a crowded bus to take us to the “terminal.” Which was really just a large room where everyone crowded around a small raised platform to find luggage. We thought it took a while to get all our stuff, but apparently we made it out in record time: 1 hour! PCV facilitators (PCVFs), current volunteers who are helping with training, met us at the airport. We drove to Hotel SIL, where we would be for about 2 days, and met the Associate Peace Corps Directors (APCDs) for the Health and Small Enterprise Development (SED) programs, and more PC staff. Yes, PC really enjoys the use of acronyms. Sorry if they get confusing, lol. Anyway, we got to settle into our rooms a bit and then it was time for dinner. They eased us into Burkina food with pizza that first night. The Country Director (CD) also made an appearance, as did the Peace Corps director for Africa, who was visiting Burkina for those few days. Then the PCVFs hung out with us for a while and answered our many, many questions. 

I also discovered that regular shirts are acceptable here. I spent so much time getting conservative looking button down shirts, but v-necks and regular shirts are fine. I should have brought more of my regular clothes. Nicer tank tops (not spaghetti strap) are also ok. Covering the knees is essential, but they don't really care about covered shoulders so much.